After a long period of contraction at London City airport, CityJet is to officially withdraw scheduled passenger flights from Sunday 28 October 2018.

CityJet has been progressively suspending routes. In recent years, it has suspended Antwerp, Avignon, Edinburgh, Nantes, Paris Orly, Rotterdam and Toulon.

At present, it is left with just three routes: A codeshare on KLM operated flights to Amsterdam; daily flights to Dublin; and a seasonal route to Florence.

As a consequence of today’s announcement:

– The codeshare on KLM’s service to Amsterdam will end on Saturday 28 October 2018.

– Aer Lingus will take over the sale of CityJet’s service to Dublin from Saturday 28 October 2018. The route will be operated for Aer Lingus by CityJet Avro RJ85 aircraft aircraft and crews in Aer Lingus livery

Aer Lingus is to operate selected British Airways flights between London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Dublin and Hamburg. However, Aer Lingus will offer an economy-only service on this route, with no business class cabin.

As we reported earlier this month, BA has recently acquired a portfolio of slots at London Gatwick from the airline Monarch which suspended operations late last year. As BA is required to make use of the slots to avoid forfeiting them, its fleet of Airbus short-haul aircraft is going to quite stretched over the coming months as it scrambles to fill the slots.

A consequence of this is that BA has called on Aer Lingus, which is a fellow subsidiary of BA’s parent company International Airlines Group, to operate selected flights between London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Dublin and Hamburg from early Feburary 2018.

At the outset, we should mention that this should not be confused with BA’s existing codeshare arrangement with Aer Lingus. BA has long codeshared on Aer Lingus operated flights from London Heathrow Terminal 2 to Dublin. These flights have the numbers BA59**.

BA flights between London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Dublin to be operated by Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus is to fly direct from Dublin to Seattle from May 2018. The airline will fly to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport four times weekly on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The route launches on Friday 18 May 2018.

Flights will be operated using an Airbus A330 aircraft in a two class, economy and business, configuration.

This is the latest addition to a growing portfolio of transatlantic routes for Aer Lingus from Dublin. It has recently launched Miami and announced Philadelphia. It has also launched Los Angeles, Hartford, Newark and Washington Dulles in recent years.

The route will be codeshared with BA and it will be possible, via ba.com to book a one-stop flight from London to Seattle via Dublin with the benefit of US customs & immigration pre-clearance and a direct flight back from Seattle to London. BA flies to Seattle up to two times daily on most days of the week.

It’s also worth noting that BA does have a codeshare partnership with Alaska Airlines at Seattle to destinations such as Anchorage and Portland. Aer Lingus may well follow BA and add Alaska Airlines as a codeshare partner.

If you book via AerLingus.com direct from Dublin it will also be possible to buy an “unbundled” saver fare which does not include a checked bag, seat selection nor blankets and headphomes.

Aer Lingus is due to join the transatlantic joint-business with American Airlines, BA, Finnair and Iberia which is pending regulatory approval. However, based on comments by its CEO this week, there are no immediate plans for Aer Lingus to join the Oneworld alliance.

Philadelphia’s Independence Hall (Image Credit: C. Smyth for VISIT PHILADELPHIA®)Aer Lingus is to fly direct from Dublin to Philadelphia from late March 2018. The airline will fly to Philadelphia International Airport four times weekly on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The route launches on Monday 26 March 2018.

Aer Lingus has confirmed it is to launch a new route from Dublin to Miami.

The airline will fly to Miami three times a week from Friday 1 September 2017.

The route will operate using an A330 aircraft in a two class, economy and business, configuration.

Whilst Miami is served by a number of airlines direct from London Heathrow, this news is of particular interest as Dublin offers US Customs & Immigration pre-clearance and passengers can avoid long immigration queues at Miami airport.

The route will be codeshared with British Airways and by the time the route is operating Aer Lingus should be a member of the Oneworld alliance so members of Oneworld member airline frequent flyer programmes should be able to earn miles and asssociated benefits on these flights.

Separately, Aer Lingus has also announced more flights to Los Angeles, Orlando and Chicago for the summer of 2017. Flights will operate daily to Los Angeles, 4 times weekly to Orlando and twice daily to Chicago.

The airline has also announced new short haul routes to Porto in Portugal and Split in Croatia.

In terms of what hasn’t been announced, there is still no date for Aer Lingus rejoining Oneworld or a date for the start of co-operation between Aer Lingus and American Airlines.

Aer Lingus and British Airways continue to extend co-operation with each other under the umbrella of their parent company International Airlines Group.

The two airlines are now codesharing on each other’s transatlantic flights between London, Dublin, Shannon and the USA.

This means that Aer Lingus flights from Shannon to Boston and New York JFK and from Dublin to Boston, New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare, Orlando and San Francisco can be booked under a BA flight number on ba.com

Codeshares can be booked whether connecting from London or starting your journey in Dublin or Shannon.

The main benefit of this arrangement is that members of the British Airways Executive Club can earn Avios points and Executuve Club tier points in the same manner as a British Airways flight.

All passengers also benefit from US Customs & Immigration pre-clearance in Dublin and Shannon and connections are available from London Gatwick for those who would prefer to avoid London Heathrow.

Similarly, the Aer Lingus code has been placed on all BA transatlantic flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick, giving Aer Lingus passengers access to a more extensive route network.

It’s also worth noting that codesharing does not apply to BA routes to Canada and Central & South America.

Furthermore, a date has not yet been set for Aer Lingus to join the transatlantic joint-venture with American Airlines which is subject to commercial negotiation and regulatory approval.

Nor has a date been set for Aer Lingus to rejoin the Oneworld alliance.

British Airways and Aer Lingus have taken their first steps to greater collaboration now that the two airlines are under the umbrella of International Airlines Group.

The two airlines have historically codeshared on certain routes between Ireland and the UK, but BA codeshares on Aer Lingus operated flights have typically only been available when transferring onto a long-haul flight.

Aer Lingus routes between London Heathrow and Dublin, Shannon and Cork and London Gatwick and Dublin, Belfast City and Cork can now be booked via ba.com when travelling direct between the UK and Ireland from Wednesday 11 November 2015.

In addition, Aer Lingus routes between London Gatwick and Knock and London Heathrow and Belfast City can now be booked as codeshares through ba.com when travelling from Wednesday 11 November 2015.

BA is also applying its flight codes to Aer Lingus flights from UK regional airports, with Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool being the first added.

A gentle reminder that when booking codeshares it is the operating airline’s procedures that apply regarding luggage and in-flight service. Also, Aer Lingus flights from London Heathrow depart from Terminal 2.

We should hear more in the coming weeks about greater co-operation between Aer Lingus, IAG and the Oneworld alliance specifically with regard to reciprocal frequent flyer recognition, codesharing and co-ordination of schedules.

As was widely tipped online, Aer Lingus has today announced it is to return to Los Angeles and Newark airports next year, and launch a new direct route from Dublin to Bradley International Airport in Hartford County, Connecticut. The latter route will be the sole transatlantic route from the airport.

Aer Lingus will fly five times a week to Los Angeles from Sunday 1 May 2016, and daily to Newark from Thursday 1 September 2016. Both routes will be operated by A330 aircraft. Flights for these routes are on sale now at AerLingus.com

Aer Lingus confirmed during the announcement of its half year results yesterday, Wednesday 29 July 2015, that it is to effectively re-introduce business class on selected short-haul routes, in the fourth quarter of this year.

The new “Aer Space” product will offer full ticket flexibility, lounge access, priority boarding and luggage handling and complimentary food & drink (we don’t know if this includes hot food or alcoholic drinks).

The seat itself will be the same as economy but the middle seat will be kept free.

There will also be no cabin divider between economy and “Aer Space” (this is so it doesn’t constitute a separate cabin for Air Passenger Duty purposes).

It is very similar to the “Excellence Fare” offered by Vueling and Germanwing’s “Best Fare”.

The routes on which it will be launched have yet to be announced but we expect that London Heathrow – Dublin will be one of the first.

We assume that passengers connecting to/from business class long-haul flights on Aer Lingus and its future IAG/Oneworld partners will be seated in the “Aer Space” seats.

Update:

This product has not, as of April 2018, not been implemented and seems to have been postponed indefinitely.